12.30.2012

Thanks to how bored my in-laws are with none of their friends down to Florida yet, my father-in-law had some extra time to kill at an estate sale in Islamorada and found this old Who poster rolled up in a Garfield tube (that's killin' time). The poster's from the Cow Palace show in San Francisco, November 20, 1973. Notable for it being the night The Who launched the Quadrophenia Tour, but more notorious for drummer Keith Moon passing out on his drum kit from too much booze and tranquilizers. Pete Townshend then had to ask the audience "Can anybody play the drums?" (5:15) and 19 year-old Iowan Scot Halpin bangs out the rest of the show."

12.27.2012

The symbol of artistic and cultural charity: PBS in New York City's Channel 13 tote bags. Yours with a donation of $50 or more during pledge drives, the Herb Lubalin-logotyped bags were a ubiquitous in Fairfield County during the 70's and 80's, but now nearly extinct- except in our closet, where they're falling off the shelf.

12.26.2012

From my parents' attic (wandering around after Christmas dinner) - the most interesting thing in my old Parsons portfolio was Tim Gunn's memo paper.
Far and away one of the nicest guys I've ever known.

12.09.2012

Poor baby. When you was built you didn't think you'd have to go through all this!

Robert Venturi's 1969 Lieb House, in Loveladies NJ, from a 1971 Architecture and Urbanism magazine, and the trailer for the film Saving Lieb House, the ten-day scramble to save the pop-art beach house from the black tide of megamansionism.

12.03.2012

"Despite its condition this is a great painting of a wood nymph dancing around a twilight forest in a sheer, diaphanous cloth. Painted by midwest American artist Emil Hermann (1870-1966). The condition is shabby- it has about 10 chips of paint off the front (although you could almost imagine them as Forest Sprites), one hole, and probably layers of dirt (Antiques Roadshow protocol says I'll leave the cleaning to the experts.) But those flaws considered, it makes for a nice piece of shabby chic decor- the smile on the dancer's face transcends the condition.